infolinks

20110321

With The Shortround, sometimes I review shorts you guys never get to see as they are usually sent via screeners or are touring various film festivals. Well, that's not going to happen with this one because YOU can watch the full short below and read my review after. I'm kind of excited to see what you all thing about Ruairi Robinson's Blinky TM (aka Bad Robot). A sci-fi horror blend of Asimov wickedness.

Robinson is an Irish filmmaker who has made a couple of sci-fi shorts his last being The Silent City. He was attached to direct the live action version of Akira but dropped out. Starring Max Records from Where the Wild Things Are, Blinky will make you cry, laugh and cringe. The tagline says it all.

Soon every home will have a robot helper. Don't worry. It's perfectly safe.

the jaded viewer says: Blinky tm does so much in its 12 min runtime that it's almost a perfect short. Like a segment out of Issac Assimov's I, Robot, you get a feel for this future world that even Speilberg would be impressed. From the fake newscast to the Blinky commercial (I loved the quick warnings the commercial gives), you feel as if this world is only years away.

Max Records gives a great performance as Alex Neville whose parents are arguing constantly which leads him to want a Blinky, a R2D2 like droid that is part housekeeper, part playmate. The montage of happy times is hilariously LOL (they like to play Hide and Seek and throw Frisbees) and it's this contrast to the later half of the short where things fall apart that is so subtle it has a feel of a feature film ready to take off.

The twist of Blinky is that you feel the "The Three Laws of Robotics" is going to be twisted and bent here and it is. The roller coaster you go through is particularly brilliant. We the viewer feel for Alex who is seeing his parent's marriage crumble. Then we empathize with Blinky who sees Alex turn into his parents, becoming angry, confused and uncaring. It's so clearly intentional that it makes for a hell of an emotional game.

Robinson knows how to pull your strings and with Blinky's final minutes, he totally yanks the chair from underneath you. That is an impressive feat for a short. The special effects are awesome, top notch and stellar. Blinky moves and acts as a real character and ILM should hire this guy immediately!

When Skynet takes over, you better treat your robot slave well or you'll be looking for some spare parts of your own.

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What did you think of Blinky (tm)? Share your thoughts about this short.